It is still dark in Calgary early Thursday morning when Trudeau comes on the screen, ready for his con-job closeup, standing behind the podium in Ottawa with his every word sliced and diced and put into the political calculator, ready to be spit out.

There is no other way to put it. His appearance is an insult. He is sorry for nothing, reveals nothing and stickhandles through a well-worn script of tiresome nothings.

Does he take Canadians for fools? That’s an answer we do know.

Jody Wilson-Raybould, once this country’s attorney general, made a decision not to cut a deal with corporate giant SNC-Lavalin of Montreal to get them out of going to court on corruption and bribery charges.

Wilson-Raybould says she was arm-twisted by Team Trudeau in a persistent attempt, complete with veiled threats, to change her mind, with the man himself bringing politics into the equation.

Wilson-Raybould said when the prime minister was in the room she looked Trudeau in the eye and asked him if he was politically interfering. She strongly advised against it.

Jody Wilson-Raybould appears at the House of Commons Justice Committee on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 27, 2019.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Trudeau speaks and near the end of his much-ado-about-nothing performance a newshound asks if the prime minister is apologizing for anything.

We’d hoped against all the evidence for contrition, not crap.

“I will be making an Inuit apology this afternoon,” says Trudeau, of his offering an official sorry for the way the government treated Inuit with tuberculosis decades ago.

“In regards to standing up for jobs and defending the integrity of our rule of law I continue to say there was no inappropriate pressure.”

Trudeau is always much more willing to signal virtue by apologizing for the sins of others. He does not like to confess his own.

So no apology, no contrition, nothing inappropriate.

Trudeau does say he will reflect on lessons learned, though, and “do even better next time.”

“There is always room for improvement, obviously,” he says.

Gag.

The rest is so predictable.

An “erosion of trust” between Wilson-Raybould and Trudeau best pal and former right-hand man Gerry Butts. He wishes he’s known about it earlier.

There was a breakdown in communication.

Poor Trudeau was just trying to save jobs.

It was all about jobs, jobs, jobs though his best bud Butts couldn’t provide any specific evidence jobs were at stake if SNC-Lavalin had to go to court and face possible conviction and a 10-year ban on bidding for federal government contracts.

Neither could the very unpleasant Michael Wernick, biggest of the big paper shufflers in Ottawa, a man oozing look-down-his-nose arrogance, apparently oblivious or not caring how he appeared to the rest of us.

Was politics ever brought into all this pushing for SNC-Lavalin?

“I’m sure there were a broad range of issues discussed,” says Trudeau.

Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick waits to appear before the Justice Committee meeting in Ottawa, Thursday February 21, 2019.Adrian Wyld /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

The PM says he did mention he was a Montreal member of parliament and he cares for the people in his riding and that’s not partisan.

Yes, every conversation was “focused on the well-being of Canadians.”

The gag reflex gets a real workout when the poster boy of moral relativism says there are “different perspectives” on what happened.

You know, more than one way of looking at it. Drawing different conclusions, coming away from the same experience with different impressions. Experiencing things in different ways.

He has no excuse for us, though he no doubt figures he can manipulate political storm clouds better than real ones.

Earlier this week, in a meeting of politicians chewing over this whole story, the no-nonsense NDP member of parliament Charlie Angus said the prime minister and his minions were trying to paint a certain kind of picture for Canadians.

This was just a “sad state of emotions.” Maybe they just misunderstood each other.

Angus and others were searching for that rarest commodity. Not this person’s truth or that person’s truth.

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